MILWAUKEE — Kyle Hendricks exited Tuesday night’s game against the Brewers with right shoulder soreness after 3 innings of work.

Hendricks threw 69 pitches, and his velocity was down about a mile-per-hour below his average. He said he started feeling the pain in his first warmup pitch of the game on the mound.

“Just uncomfortable,” Hendricks said. “Similar to what I felt before, but popping up again this time and started right at the beginning of the game.”

In the 2nd inning, David Ross went up for a mound visit with a runner on first and two outs, but Hendricks stayed in the game.

“I just wanted some honesty,” Ross said. “I try to cut out the middle man sometimes. Just makes it a little easier to look somebody in the eye and kinda feel — hear their words, hear the tone of their voice. I felt pretty confident. He is very honest with me. We’ve got that kinda relationship. I trusted in that and it got us to this.”

He missed two weeks last month when he dealt with right shoulder inflammation.

“The first warmup pitch of every inning is the worst and then it kinda gets ok, more manageable from there, but no, not any particular pitch or anything,” Hendricks said. “Just the first warmup is the worst.”

Hendricks allowed a walk to Christian Yelich to start Tuesday’s game, struck out Willy Adames, then surrendered a 2-run home run to Rowdy Tellez. He settled in after that, retiring 8 of the next 10 hitters he faced.

Hendricks averaged 85.7 mph on his sinker Tuesday, down 0.8 mph from his yearly average on the pitch. One of his sinkers registered at 83.8 mph. His velocity was down 0.7 mph on his changeup, 4-seam fastball and curveball, too.

“I always wanna be out there,” Hendricks said. “That’s my goal. I take the ball and I pitch that’s what I do. So, concern from that level. But there’s nothing I can really do. Not concerned from the fact that I felt it before, I know what it is, but we just gotta see what course of action to really go from here.”

So, will he miss his next start? 

“I’m not sure about that,” he said. “That might be a good conclusion to pull from this, but again we really gotta see MRI in the next day or two, I think and get those results and go from there and see what’s gonna be the smartest route.”

Matt Swarmer came in in relief, pitching 2 scoreless innings in the Cubs win over Milwaukee. Rowan Wick worked a pair of innings in relief, including coming in and working out of a bases-loaded jam and Michael Rucker pitched the final 2 innings of the game. 

“That was huge,” Hendricks said. “I felt so bad just putting the team in a bad spot there. Unbelievable from Swarms coming in, Ro getting out of that big jam for him, too, keeping us there.”

Other injury updates

Ross and the Cubs were meeting with injured starters Marcus Stroman and Drew Smyly before deciding their next steps in their rehab.

Sunday with the Iowa Cubs, Stroman threw 53 pitches in 2.2 innings, allowing 5 runs on 7 hits with a walk and two strikeouts.

“Heard it went really well, better than the line,” Ross said on Monday. “I think really ran out of gas or what at the back end there.”

Smyly pitched on a rehab assignment Monday in South Bend, going 4 innings with 6 strikeouts and 3 runs on 4 hits. He threw 52 pitches in the outing.

“We’re gonna try to get with [Stroman] and Smyly today and see kinda how things map out moving forward,” Ross said on Tuesday. “We haven’t gotten a full plan yet.”

Both were in Milwaukee Tuesday.

Willson Contreras exited Monday’s game in the extra innings with left hamstring soreness. Ross called the move precautionary.

“Feels better,” Ross said. “Not as sore as we thought. Feels a little better today. He’ll be day-to-day.”

Daniel Norris (15-day IL, left index finger sprain) threw a 22-pitch live batting practice session. Frank Schwindel (10-day IL, low back strain) and Nick Madrigal (10-day IL, left groin strain) both sat in on the batting practice.